Map of the Key West Extension -- End of the Line -- The Road to Paradise -- Citizen Flagler -- Paradise Found -- Empire Building -- The City That Flagler Built -- The Stage Is Set -- The Eighth Wonder of the World -- Charting the Territories -- Jumping-Off Point -- A Surprise, the First of Many -- Nature's Fury -- Duly Noted -- On Toward Key West -- The Signature Bridge -- Seven Miles of Hell -- Learning Curve -- Railroad Builder Overboard -- Deep Bay -- Wonder to Behold -- Failed -- Rolling On -- Storm of Storms -- A Fine, Improper Place.

"Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford's fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad--one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. Brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler's dream fulfilled, the Key West Railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as 'the eighth wonder of the world.' Standiford brings the full force and fury of 1935's deadly 'storm of the century' and its sweeping destruction of 'the railroad that crossed an ocean' to terrifying life. Last Train to Paradise celebrates a crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition in a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature's wrath."--Jacket